Gender Drama At The 1936 Berlin Olympics

Since this has come up repeatedly once again in the context of international sport, thought it was time to point out the history behind why Caster Semenya and other women throughout the 20th and early 21st century have undergone gender testing.

The watershed year for the paranoia behind men competing in women's international sporting events is 1936.

Nazi Germany wanted the Berlin Olympics to be a political showcase for the Third Reich. They set the goal of surpassing the 21 total medals Germany won in the 1932 Los Angeles Games, and one way they sought to do that was sneaking their 'supermen' into the women's events.

To accomplish that goal, the Nazis forced Hitler Youth member Hermann Ratjen to live and compete for three years as Dora Ratjen.

While Nazi Germany did lead all nations in winning 89 total medals and 33 golds at the Berlin Games, one medal they didn't get was in the women's Olympic high jump. Ratjen finished fourth in the event. At the 1938 European championships in Vienna Ratjen did set a then women's world record of 5 feet 5.75 inches in the high jump.

Dora was busted while traveling in Germany after the European championships. While wearing feminine attire Ratjen was spotted at a train station with five o'clock shadow on his face. A doctor was summoned, and the truth about Dora's actual genitalia was revealed. Ratjen was barred from competing in international athletics and went back to his life as Hermann.

Hermann Ratjen told his story in 1957, then faded from the spotlight until his death in April 2008

The 1936 Berlin Games also brought us the drama between bitter rivals Helen Stephens and Stella Walsh.

Walsh set the then 100m world record of 11.7 seconds in 1934 and was the defending Olympic champion. But starting in 1935 Stephens served noticed that she was the up and coming running phenom.

At Stephens' first meet, she not only beat the 'world's fastest woman' in the 50m dash, she tied the world record. Stephens also set a new world record for the 200 meters, a new world record in the standing broad jump, and won the shot put event.

When spectators congratulated her on being the new 'fastest woman in the world' and for beating Stella Walsh, she asked, "Who is Stella Walsh?" That comment got back to Stella Walsh, pissed her off and it was on like Donkey Kong between the two women after that.

In the 1936 Games Walsh chose to run for Poland just as she did at the 1932 Games. It didn't change the fact she was having trouble beating Stephens in the States.

During their careers, Stephens never lost to Walsh in their head to head matchups, and the 1936 100m Olympic final was no exception.

Stephens not only beat Walsh, but ran it in a 11.5 second time that broke Walsh's two year old world record.

Walsh, angry about being beaten by her rival, promptly threw 'that's a man' shade at Stephens which the Polish press amplified. She protested to officials that Stephens was really a man falsely running as a woman because no woman could run that fast.

German officials examined Stephens, pronounced her female, and the protest was disallowed.

This incident was ironic in light of Walsh's tragic December 4, 1980 death at age 69. She was struck by a stray bullet in the wake of a robbery attempt of a Cleveland, OH discount store while unloading her shopping cart to her car.

Her autopsy revealed she had mosaicism, which meant that, chromosomally, she was mostly, but not all, male but had androgynous looks to live her life as and be raised female.

So you can thank Nazi Germany, a bitter rivalry between two sprinters and subsequent eastern Bloc cheating for the current gender testing drama that's occurring now.

50th Anniversary Of The Founding Of The American Football League

Fifty years ago today an event occurred which changed the face of professional football forever in the United States.

On August 14, 1959 Lamar Hunt, after several futile attempts to purchase the Chicago Cardinals (now the Arizona Cardinals) or get an NFL expansion franchise for Dallas, held an organizational meeting in Chicago that led to the founding of the American Football League. It was on this date that they chose the official name of the league.

The original AFL franchises granted were the Dallas Texans, the Denver Broncos, the Houston Oilers, the New York Titans, the Los Angeles Chargers and a team for Minneapolis-St Paul.

The 'Foolish Club', as the initial AFL principal owners were derisively called was now complete.

The then 12 team NFL, now realizing its mistake in stubbornly refusing to grant the AFL founders franchises, reversed themselves on expansion and extended an offer for the Minneapolis-St. Paul group to join the NFL. The ownership group promptly withdrew from the AFL and started play in 1961 as the Minnesota Vikings.

The Minneapolis-St Paul group was replaced in the AFL by the Oakland Raiders. The Buffalo Bills and the Boston (New England) Patriots joined later to round out the initial eight team AFL line up.

The AFL eventually added expansion teams in Miami and Cincinnati, while the NFL countered by adding teams in Dallas, New Orleans and Atlanta and allowing the transfer of the Chicago Cardinals to St. Louis.

The AFL started play in 1960 with my beloved Oilers, thanks to signing 1959 Heisman Trophy winner Billy Cannon and George Blanda, playing in the first three AFL title games and winning the first two. The Oilers bid to threepeat in 1962 was spoiled by the Dallas Texans in a championship game that spanned two overtime periods.

The AFL spawned many innovations that modern football is based on. They adopted the two point conversion, had more colorful uniforms and creative team logos, began keeping the official game time on the stadium clock, put names on the back of player jerseys, a 14 game schedule and the first professional soccer style kicker.

The AFL invested heavily in recruiting and signing African-American players from HBCUs and had scouts tasked to find the best players.

The AFL also pioneered the practice of sharing gate receipts and a cooperative television plan. The AFL league office negotiated the initial five year ABC-TV contract, and divided the proceeds equally between the league and AFL member clubs.

Instead of two TV cameras parked on the 50 yard line as was the practice for CBS broadcasts of NFL games, the AFL television broadcasts employed multiple television cameras covering the game, a roving sideline camera and miked players,

While none of the AFL teams folded, there was franchise movement and ownership changes in the early years of the league.

The Los Angeles Chargers moved to San Diego after the 1960 season. The Dallas Texans, fighting the Dallas Cowboys for fans departed for Kansas City in 1963 despite being more successful on the field than their NFL expansion rivals.

The Oakland Raiders lost $500,000 the first season battling the San Francisco 49ers for fans but stayed afloat thanks to a personal loan from Bills owner Ralph Wilson. After a new ownership group bought the New York Titans, they changed the team colors and the name to the Jets.

After a while NFL fans, GM's, players, media and their supporters were forced to stop sneering at the upstart league and realize that it was eating their lunch.

AFL attendance increased as fans became attracted to the league's wide open, pass happy offensive style of play. It was a marked contrast to the three yards and a cloud of dust conservative NFL style of play.

The AFL from its earliest days made a serious dent in signing collegiate talent and free agents as witnessed by the AFL New York Jets winning the bidding war for Joe Namath. Earlier college signees such as John Hadl, Billy Cannon and Lance Alworth amongst others became stars in the league. So-called 'NFL rejects' such as Jack Kemp, George Blanda, Cookie Gilchrist, Babe Parilli, Frank Tripucka and Len Dawson became AFL stars as well.

When the AFL signed a new $36 million TV contract with NBC in 1964 it acquired the cash to seriously go toe to toe with the NFL and did. Combined with the earlier ABC contract, the proceeds from those contracts stabilized the league and gave it time to establish itself as a worthy rival and alternative to the NFL.

Al Davis becoming AFL commissioner in 1966 and aggressively going after established NFL stars, combined with escalating player salaries led to secret talks between Lamar Hunt and Tex Schramm initiated by the NFL to merge the two leagues. The AFL-NFL Championship Game, which later became the Super Bowl was a result of those talks.

The AFL even had their own civil rights controversy as well.

In January 1965 the AFL All-Star Game was slated to be played in New Orleans. On the eve of the game, several African-American players visited the French Quarter. They were refused admittance to two clubs, several restaurants and had problems getting taxis.

The incensed players attended a five hour meeting organized by AFL icon Cookie Gilchrist. It resulted in 21 African-American players leaving town and an ultimatum backed up by future vice presidential candidate and Gilchrist's Buffalo Bills teammate Jack Kemp. They demanded that the game either be moved from New Orleans or face a player boycott. The AFL All-Star Game ended up being moved and subsequently played in Houston.

Any post about the AFL wouldn't be complete without mentioning the 'Heidi Game'.

It was a November 17, 1968 game played in Oakland between the New York Jets and the Oakland Raiders. Both teams were leading their respective divisions at the time with identical 7-2 records and the game was a slugfest.

The Jets were up 32-29 with only 1:05 left in the game, so NBC programmers, in their zeal to maintain their television programming schedule, switched off the ostensibly-decided game at 7 PM in the Eastern and Central time zones in order to start the movie Heidi on time.

Unfortunately for NBC they did so as the Raiders were executing the game winning drive. The Raiders eventually scored 14 points in that final 1:05 to win 43-32.

Fans who missed the comeback were so irate the switchboard ceased to function after blowing out 25 circuits. NBC was forced to apologize for the blunder several days later.

As a result of the 'Heidi Game' NFL television contracts include a stipulation stating local games must be aired to their completion regardless of the score. The 'Heidi Phone', a direct line from game producers to network execs also exists to ensure it doesn't happen again.

The decade of AFL competition came to an end in 1970 with the merger of the two leagues into a 26 team NFL. The two leagues were split into 13 team conferences, the American and National with three divisions.

Three NFL teams, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Cleveland Browns and the Baltimore Colts joined the ten teams of the AFL to form the AFC Conference, with the remaining NFL teams forming the NFC Conference.

The last official AFL game played was the AFL All-Star Game played in the Astrodome on January 17, 1970. The Western All-Stars, led by Chargers quarterback and AFL All-Star Game MVP John Hadl, defeated the Eastern All-Stars 26-3.

The legacy of the AFL is still strong in the NFL today. Many current or legendary NFL coaches have ties to Charger coach Sid Gillman. The long down field bomb that is a weapon in NFL offensive arsenals today was a play popularized by AFL teams.

The 50th anniversary of the AFL will be recognized with Legacy Weekends in which NFL games matching up former AFL teams will be contested with the players wearing throwback uniforms.

This year's NFL Pro Football Hall of Fame game that took place August 9 featured the Buffalo Bills and Tennessee Traitors playing in throwback uniforms.

And no, I'm never going to let it go. forgive, or forget that Bud moved my team to Nashville.

At least I'll have the pleasure of watching several Traitors games this season in which they'll have to wear the old Oilers uniforms.

But it's a testament to the success of the AFL that not only did all of its teams get absorbed into the NFL, the bigger league adopted, with the exception of the two point conversion that it resisted until 1995, many of the innovations spawned by the younger one.

19.19

Usain 'Lightning' Bolt strikes again.

He wore a practice t-shirt with the words 'Ich bin ein Berliner' on it, and he wasn't joking. Berlin has definitely been his town over the last few days.

Fresh off of breaking his own world record in the 100m final a few days ago, he set his sights on eradicating his one year old record in the 200m that he set during last year's Beijing Games.

And just like in the 100m meter final, he lowered the record by .11 seconds.

This may have been the stadium in which Jesse Owens triumphantly won four gold medals in 1936, but Usain Bolt and his Jamaican track teammates are turning it and these World Track and Field Championships into their own personal playground.

In addition to setting five world records in his last five major races, Bolt is the first and only track athlete to simultaneously hold the Olympic and world records in the 100m and 200m.

The only question left for the world now is whether he'll win the 100m and 200m in the same record breaking fashion in London two years from now.

Black Female Athlete Dominates Competition-Gets Gender Identity Questioned

One of the depressingly tired memes of elite level athletic competition is that almost every time a Black woman rises to become the best at her sport, she is either dissed, suspected of cheating or has her gender identity questioned.

The latest episode of this sorry meme is evolving right now in the wake of Caster Semenya winning the 800m world championship in Berlin with the fifth fastest run of all time.

Since she doesn't look stereotypically female, has short cropped hair and a deep, raspy voice, that's enough 'evidence' for the IAAF gender police to haul her in for gender testing.

Wonder if Caster had been a blonde haired blue eyed European runner who ran that same time? Would the IAAF react the same way?

Probably not.

Semenya's best revenge should she pass the gender test will be to keep kicking their asses until she's standing on the top step of the 800m run victory platform at the 2012 London Games. She and her family can smile while they're putting a gold medal around her neck and playing the South African national anthem.

But this crap has played itself out over and over again throughout my lifetime. The Williams sisters have battled that BS in addition to being insultingly called transwomen as they spent the 2K's merrily dominating the women's professional tennis tour.

WNBA and college basketball players constantly battle this meme as well.

Ice skater Debi Thomas was described by commentators during her competitive rivalry with Germany's Katarina Witt in the 80's as 'athletic and powerful'. Conversely, Witt was described as 'artistic and graceful'.

The same crap was said about France's Surya Bonaly a few short years later. She was a world champion gymnast who was the only figure skater in the world who could perform a back flip and land on one skate. But that athletic ability probably cost her a world figure skating championships as well in 1994.

Even Florence Griffith-Joyner, the woman who brought fashion and glamour to the track world had her problems with that meme.

Flo Jo ran world record times in the 100m and 200m meters that haven't been matched by any current female runner enroute to her four medal winning performance at the 1988 Seoul Games.

Because of Flo Jo's slightly muscular frame and her running style, she dealt with rumors throughout her career that followed her to the grave she was on steroids. This despite the fact she never failed a post race drug test.

After Brazilian runner Joaquim Cruz held a press conference accusing her of precisely that, a reporter famously remarked, "If Flo Jo's on steroids I'm buying some for my girlfriend."

As the Nigerian Super Falcon womens soccer team proved last year, women will even cattily throw the 'that's a man' shade at each other to cover up their own lousy performance.

In the 2008 African Women's Cup Tournament they spent more time complaining and questioning the gender of two of Equatorial Guinea's players than handling their own business. The Super Falcons eventually lost to Equatorial Guinea 1-0 in the semifinals and finished third in a tournament they up until that point had never lost.

But this plays into a larger meme of ignorance and preconceived notions about what is and isn't feminine. The fact that Black women have historically been saddled with the baggage of being considered less than female vis a vis the vanilla flavored beauty standard only adds to this drama.

Add archaic and stereotypical notions about what athletic feats a woman is capable of producing, throw in a little borderline racism and you have a recipe for negative behavior and judgmental commentary to come out of people's mouths.

If it coincides with what the 'experts' consider as 'too rapid' athletic performance for a woman, she may find herself being subjected to a battery of embarrassing and invasive tests just to prove to cynical skeptics that she's 'woman enough' to compete in elite sports with other women.

9.58!

When we watched Jamaica's Usain Bolt destroy the old 100 meter world record and showboat his way over the last ten meters to a 9.68 time enroute to the gold medal, many of us wondered how fast could the 23 year old run if he ran flat out for 100 meters?

In the 2009 World Track and Field Championships being held in Berlin, we may have gotten an answer to that question.

In the same stadium in which Jesse Owens won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Games, and exactly one year from the date he set the record in Beijing last summer, Usain Bolt obliterated it.

He ran an out of this world 9.58 in the 100m final. If you had any doubts that this man is the real deal and the best sprinter in the world bar none, I think he answered them.

Tyson Gay finished second in 9.71 and became as a consolation prize, the American record holder in the event and the second fastest man of all time.

If he stays healthy over the next two years, it's probably safe to say that Bolt will be a prohibitive favorite to repeat his gold medal winning performance in London. There's no one on this planet who can run with him.

Believe it or not, Bolt thinks he can run even faster and lower the record to a mind bending 9.4 seconds.

I don't have any doubts that he can't.

Dawn Does Dallas

Actually, Dawn is headed to the Dallas suburb of Grapevine, TX for the US Summer Nationals fencing tournament. She bounced out of the house about an hour ago enroute to the airport and will be winging off to DFW shortly.

She finished third in last year's Women's 40's Summer Nationals saber competition held in San Jose, CA. This time she's aiming to slash and parry her way through the Baby Vets to the top step of the victory platform.

In addition to her desire to win it all, she's still fighting to hold her spot on the USA Women's 40's saber team that is slated to go to Sydney, Australia for a Down Under world championship fencing tournament scheduled to take place in October.

So good luck sis, and hope you bring another medal or two back from my home state with you.

It's Little Sis!

The fourth Sister-Sister final is over, and for the first time in six years Little Sis is hoisting the Venus (Williams) Rosewater Dish aloft.

Serena Williams beat two time defending champ Big Sis 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 to capture her third Wimbledon title. Little Sis had an amazing day serving, cranking out 12 aces in this championship match to win her first title at the All England Club since 2003.

The 2K's have been the Williams era at the All England Club. If you peruse the Ladies Singles Wimbledon championship list for this decade, the only years that a Williams hasn't won Wimbledon is 2004, the year Maria Sharapova upset Serena for the title, and 2006 in which Serena didn't play and Venus fell in the third round to Jelena Jankovic in three sets.

So it's next year for Venus quest to capture her sixth Wimbledon title. The ironic thing is that all three of Serena's Wimbledon title wins (2002, 2003, 2009) have come at the expense of Big Sis. The 2008 Wimbledon was the only one of Venus' five titles have come at the expense of Little Sis.

Venus' quest for a sixth title will commence next summer, and the odds are she may have to go through her little sister to get it.

It's About the Team USA 'Menz'

Still thinking about that heartbreaking loss the Team USA men suffered Sunday at the hands of Brazil after being up 2-0 at halftime.

It would have been fun to see Team USA shock the world again, but hey, we're talking about five time World Cup champion Brazil here.

We're playing a nation where soccer is life and they gripe about poor international soccer performances and losses like we did when either the Team USA men or women screw up in international basketball competition.

The Team USA men have nothing to be ashamed of. They played hard for 90 minutes and gave it their all. It just wasn't enough. The Brazilians have much game.

It was also another step on the long road in the Team USA men's quest to become consistent contenders in world football competition.

It was a remarkable run as well as being a learning experience for our international footballers. I also like the fact they were pissed they lost. One of the signs that they are improving is they want to win and feel they can compete with the elite level programs.

Hopefully the next time they're in a set piece situation like that, they'll remember what happened in Johannesburg that night, have the confidence in themselves and their teammates to know they can withstand the pressure, and every player will mark their man close enough to smell his cologne.

A Note To The World-We DO Play Football In The States!

TransGriot Note:My latest piece for Global Comment

To the average American sports fan, football is played with two eleven member teams of massive men struggling to score with an oblong ball on a striped 100 by 53 yard field with U-shaped goalposts at either end.

The Canadian version is played with twelve men and an oblong ball on a longer and wider field. The Aussies play their eighteen man version of what they call 'footy' on a field with an oblong ball as well with four goalposts on either end.

To the rest of the planet, football (or soccer as we call it here in the States, Canada and Australia) is played with two eleven player teams of either men and women battling to kick a round ball into a netted goal on a variable 100–110m by 64-75m pitch.

Oh yeah, national pride and sporting prestige is on the line as well.

No pressure!

Every four years the pressure and fan frenzy gets ratcheted up another level when international football supremacy is up for grabs in the FIFA World Cup.

The Olympics, World Cup qualifiers, or major FIFA international tournaments such as the Confederation and Gold Cups also grab the attention of die hard football fans, yet most sports fans in the USA are rather ho-hum about it.

But as a US sports fan, I have to give kudos to the first men's USA football team to ever qualify for a FIFA tournament final.

That's the extent of the good news for American football fans. The bad news is they were playing the mighty Brazilians, who knocked off the host South Africans 1-0 in the other semifinal match.

Team USA took a surprising 2-0 lead into halftime before the Brazilians woke up and scored three second half goals to capture the 2009 Confederations Cup tournament title in South Africa.

The Confederations Cup is held every four years and includes the winners of various continental tournaments plus the host nation of the upcoming World Cup. Team USA qualified because they won the CONCACAF region championship in 2007.

Many world football fans are still shocked that Team USA knocked off FIFA number one ranked Spain 2-0 June 24 to reach the finals of this tournament in South Africa.

But if world football fans had been paying attention, it really shouldn't have been. Team USA is currently in second place in the CONCACAF region and in a great position to qualify for next year's World Cup competition in South Africa.

However, they have a critical August 12 qualifying match with the Tricolores in Mexico City, where they are 0-11-1 all time.

As evidenced by their performance in this tournament, Team USA over the last few years has been making groundbreaking strides in recent international competitions.

But the Team USA men aren't playing just for the respect of the football world or moral victories any more, they want to win.

Team USA's Landon Donovan stated as much in an ESPN interview conducted moments after their disappointing 3-2 loss to Brazil.

But the interesting thing to me as a US sports fan is that the usual sporting script is flipped. It's the FIFA world number one ranked Team USA's women footballers who get the media attention and love, not the men.

The Team USA women rock.

They are the two time Women's World Cup champions (1991, 1996) and were runners up in the 2000 final. They are three time Olympic gold medalists in 1996, 2004 and 2008. They are one of the teams favored to take home the championship in the Women's World Cup tournament being hosted by Germany in 2011.

The USA men are trying to step up to that level. Their FIFA world ranking has climbed to number 14 from their FIFA 28th world rankings a year ago. After failing to do so in 1998, Team USA qualified for the 2002 and 2006 World Cup competitions. They made a remarkable run in the 2002 tournament but fell to Germany 1-0 in the 2002 quarterfinals.

They qualified for the 2008 Beijing Games after failing to do so in 2004 and finishing fourth in 2000.

Read the rest here.

Welcome To 'Williams'-don 2009

It's late June, and that means to a tennis fan it's time to break out the strawberries and cream. The 2009 Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club have started.

Despite another frustrating trip to Paris last month for Venus and Serena, the Williams sisters are favorites to take another Venus (Williams) Rosewater Dish back to the States.

Wimbledon has been their personal playground over the last decade. Venus has won five Wimbledon titles since 2000, including the 2007 and 2008 ones.

The sisters have played each other in two previous Wimbledon finals besides the 2008 one. Little Sis won the two previous title matchups in 2002 and 2003.

The Williams sisters are on opposite sides of the ladies singles draw (hallelujah) and could potentially meet in the finals. They are the defending ladies doubles champions and will be heavily favored to repeat.

The tradition drenched All England Club will be the venue for the 2012 Olympics tennis competition. That's a fact which probably hasn't escaped the defending doubles gold medallists from the Beijing Games attention.

Centre Court will also be sporting a brand new retractable roof, so bye bye rain delays.

The Championships begin play June 22 and run through July 5. Do my favorite tennis playing sisters have enough game to make it back to Centre Court for the ladies singles and doubles championship matches?

Well find out over the next two weeks.

It's Past Time For Women To Start Loving Sports

"No person in the U.S. shall, on the basis of sex be excluded from participation in, or denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving federal aid."

Ever since President Richard Nixon signed Title IX into law on June 23, 1972 it has had a far reaching effect on the numbers of women earning postgraduate degrees.

Before Title IX, many schools refused to admit women or enforced strict quotas in postgraduate programs. That was reflected in the fact that in 1972, the year Title IX became law, women only received 9% of the medical degrees awarded, 7% of law degrees and 25% of the US citizens receiving doctorates being women.

By 1994, those numbers increased to 38% of medical degrees, 43% of law degrees and 44% of all doctoral degrees awarded to US citizens were women.

One of the prominent effects of Title IX besides the increase in the percentages of women receiving postgraduate degrees is in the world of sports.

Athletics has also created the most controversy regarding Title IX, but its gains have also been noteworthy.

It's not unusual on any given day to turn on the television and see women's intercollegiate sports on TV. There's infinitely more attention focused on women athletes during the Olympics and on high school level girls sports compared to when I was growing up in the late 70's.

But one thing that bothers me as a sports loving person is the dismissive attitude some women have toward all things athletic. It gets to the point when in some cases, women who love or participate in sports are greeted with less than complimentary verbal epithets or have their femininity questioned.

Last year Seventeen magazine in conjunction with the WNBA partnered for a comprehensive survey that was published in the magazine's September 2008 issue.

WNBA President Donna Orender stated, "We are pleased to partner with Seventeen magazine on this important survey as we know first hand how the role of sports can develop young girls into leaders.

"The women of the WNBA are strong, passionate and determined individuals who exhibit these traits both on and off the court. As a result, we are true believers in the significance of participation in sports for all girls and women."

The Seventeen/WNBA survey revealed that 83% of teen girls play sports with basketball ranked as the number one participatory sport.

Girls play sports for a variety of reasons, but the top reason found in this survey is to exercise (68.4%). Other top reasons included forming friendships, competing and representing their schools.

Challenges that young female sports enthusiasts endure include insecurities; 33% of girls who don't play sports say it's because they're worried that they wouldn't be good at it.

In addition, 35% of girls also say their teams don't get as much equipment or field time as the boys' teams and 35% of girls have heard their peers make homophobic remarks about female athletes.

The Seventeen/WNBA survey also revealed that 66% of teen girls believe that cheerleading is a sport, not some sideline event, and 71% think female cheerleaders should cheer at girls' sports events.

Despite these factors keeping some girls from playing sports, teens today are able to look to inspiring women professional athletes and Olympians such as Lisa Leslie, Mia Hamm, Diana Taurasi, Serena and Venus Williams, Candace Parker and Florence Griffith-Joyner.

As young teens hone their athletic skills, they look upon these women as they endeavor to take women's sports to a whole new level and dismiss outdated stereotypes about the women who play them.

You also have young women such as Brittney Griner who are following in their role models footsteps and preparing to exceed even their lofty performance standards.

But despite the overwhelming evidence of the benefits of sports participation for girls and women, you still have mind-numbing fluff coming from women's magazines such as Cosmo that spout erroneous, outdated stereotypes.

In addition, women athletes in addition to having to battle feminine gender policing also have to contend with the sexist attitudes of male sports fans.

Led by the male dominated sports journalism world, the dismissive attitudes of sports talk radio and sports journalists about the level of play filter down to the potential male fan base and male athletes.

We should insist upon and demand consistent, professional coverage of women's sports from the male dominated sorts journalism culture.

Why am I so adamant about it? Sports teaches important life lessons that non athletes often miss out on. You learn that even if you practice hard and execute your game plan flawlessly, sometimes you come up short. You learn how to work well with others as part of a team. You learn how to lose with grace and win with class.

It's a pride builder when you come from a zero skills base to a higher skills level in your chosen sport and you see it translated into better performance on the field.

It's also a major self esteem boost when you kick the winning goal, get the key hit that wins the game for your team or you dig deep, pull yourself out of a love-40 hole in a critical game in a tennis match and come back to win, or run your personal best time to win a medal.

These are lessons that the male population has had ample opportunities to absorb (and some peeps need to reabsorb) and enjoyed through sports competition. The Women's Sports Foundation seconds my thoughts on the matter as well.




We should not only enthusiastically support the young girls and women in our lives who participate in sports, we should also take it upon ourselves to support women's club, high school, intercollegiate and professional sports as well.

I was a proud Houston Comets season ticket holder back home for several years during their championship run and it was the best money I've ever spent.

I saw the money I spent on my season tickets it as my investment toward keeping the WNBA viable and alive for future generations of sports loving girls. Those young girls who marveled at the play of WNBA pioneers such as Cynthia Cooper are now grown up and getting their opportunity to play in the league.

Even though I'm still pissed about the WNBA leadership not doing enough to give a local group enough time to organize and keep my hometown franchise alive, I still support the league.

Far from being something that women should ignore, sports and participation in them by their daughters should be embraced and encouraged.

Williams Sisters Tackle The 2009 French Open

While Wimbledon has been the personal playground of my favorite tennis playing siblings, the French Open and the clay courts of Stade Roland Garros have been more problematic.

The Williams sisters combined have won the French Open singles title once over their careers, with Serena's 2002 win coming at the expense of Big Sis.

The French Open started on May 24 and Venus' lousy luck at the French Open continued. Her quest for that elusive first French Open singles title is on hold until next year. She was knocked out in the third round after losing in straight sets 0-6, 4-6 at the hands of Hungary's Agnes Szavay.

The Williams sisters are playing doubles in this tournament as well and are attempting to win their first doubles crown here since 1999.

They have captured the 2008 Wimbledon, Olympic, US Open and 2009 Australian Open doubles titles, and are attempting to win all the Grand Slam events in the same year.

Little Sis is still alive in her quest to capture her second French Open title and 11th Grand slam title overall. Serena had a tough first round match with the Czech Republic's Klara Zakopalova that she eventually won 6-3, 6-7, 6-4.

She won her second round match with Spain's Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain 6-2, 6-0 and got through a sloppy third round three set 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over Spain's Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez. The match was marred by a first set blown call when a ball hit by Serena struck her opponent at a critical point in the game. Little Sis also had 25 unforced errors and four double faults, but moves on to the fourth round.

The French Open is running through June 7, and here's hoping my fave tennis playing sisters finally break through and take home from Paris the singles and doubles championship trophies.

Girl Power! Rachel Alexandra Wins Preakness

Rachel Alexandra blew out her feminine competition by 20 lengths in the May 1 Kentucky Oaks. She was obviously the class of the 3 year old fillies, and her new owner plunked down $100,000 to enter her in the Preakness Stakes to see if she could run with the big boys.

No sweat. Rachel Alexandra not only raced with the boys, she beat them.

Rachel Alexandra became the first filly to win the Preakness Stakes in 85 years as she won her sixth straight race and held off late charging Derby winner Mine That Bird to win by a length.

She comes back to Da Ville to rest and train for the June 6 Belmont Stakes and another rematch with Mine That Bird. She's bidding to become the first filly since 2007 to win the Belmont, the third leg of the Triple Crown.